Hundreds of Miles of Water stretched out and seemed to endlessly glitter across the night sky. Though it was cloudy, the light collected above the clouds, reflecting back into the air. It was a sea of fantastic lights, the planets overhead hung with their moons quietly.
Mike was alone with his thoughts, he went over battle plans in his head but nothing came to mind. He knew he was about to do something stupid and a few ideas popped into his head. There was no turning back, in this new world, it was either become a dog to kick or a dragon.
The Ocean air was refreshing, Mike had been on the ocean before many times but he had never been in the open air over any body of water. In the distance, small lights showed a few fires in a coastal city. The City was almost twenty miles wide, hundreds of thousands of houses dotted their shores.
To Mike, it didn't seem as if there were any aerial fighters or alarms. No search lights or guards were posted. 'These people are a little too complacent, aren't they?' He didn't pay too much attention to it, in just a little bit, it wouldn't matter either way. He flew to the center of the City, he was several thousand feet in the air. If anyone did spot him, they would have only seen a small red dot spinning.
Playing with the rings on his hand, Mike wondered if he would be considered the villain. No, he knew it, he would be considered a killer, It lasted only a moment but it almost made him lose his nerve. "I can't be concerned with the opinions of people who would rather see me dead."
A jar, perhaps five gallons in size appeared in Mike's hands.
He uncorked it and started to spin, faster and faster.
Droplets of liquefied elemental essence flew out and into the air like rain. He danced around the sky flinging it in every direction, moments after it hit the air, it began to burn.
Hundreds of thousands of droplets scattered in the night sky. By the time the first bead hit the City, the sky was filled with fire. Like a midnight dawn, the night sky vanished, replaced by an intense and unmerciful heat.
Those who were asleep would have been considered the lucky ones, unable to do a thing before they were incinerated. They were lucky because they did not awaken.
The trampled masses that fled from the fire rain, once touched by a single drop, began to burn intensely. Engulfed in flames, they became like candles and torches, burning everything they came into contact with. The City was surrounded by a sea of fire, like Napalm, the elemental essences would burn for some time. When people tried to put the fire out, it only spread like dish soap infused accelerant.
When Mike was sure that the City wouldn't have survivors, he flew to the Castle. He had a better idea for the Castle and its resources. There was, without a doubt, a great amount of treasure and herbs, as well as materials from all around the world within the Castle Walls.
'Shedding a tear for a Nazi is akin to asking for the gas chamber.' Mike threw out all notions of mercy, two more jars appeared in mike's hands. He dropped them from a great height.
Then, forty.
It was a bombardment, when the jars hit the stone, the broke and splashed wildly. Sometimes there were windows open, sometimes it was enough driving force to break a hole in the building. The Jars were very different in construction, some were heavy metals, some were made of glass. The metal ones bounced or exploded. Each time an explosion happened, the fire spread further.
Mike was about to unleash his secret weapon when an Arrow flew toward him. The Arrow had lost its momentum and just barely came to strike him. It bounced off Mike's jacket like a bug.
He wanted to yell out and taunt them, but it wasn't worth it. They wouldn't understand and speaking would only reveal his identity. While he wasn't trying to conceal it, he wouldn't want any possible survivors to come looking for him either. Mike flew higher until the clouds were beneath him. The smoke from the City had helped increase the cloud cover. The ash and static electricity in the air had brought the water close together and thickened the clouds overhead.
'May the Gods show you mercy, because I will not.' Mike pulled out seven jars. He only had the seven. Liquefied Elemental Lightning, when cast into a cloud causes a chain reaction. A Lightning storm of biblical proportions could be created by the use of several ounces. This is a fact that Mike was unaware of. When he cast the nearly fifty gallons of liquefied essence into the clouds, he was struck by lightning himself and thrown quite a far distance. He flew up but the distance that lightning traveled could not be counted so easily.
Countless thunderbolts rained down with water. The water spread the Liquefied Fire Essence like oil and the random thunderbolts caused the Castle and its surroundings to frequently explode.
People were laying dead in every direction, lightning, like a form of heavenly tribulation, kept raining down on the kingdom of Ornia. When the wind swept by a few times, it picked up embers and carried them further, spreading the fire to the entire Island.
From Above, Mike could hear thousands of cries for help.
In the harbor, many smaller vessels were trying to leave. Mike flew overhead and rained down ice crystals until there was no one left alive in the boats. It took the entire night for the Island to burn, Mike wondered if it was a death toll that reached one million, but one million was a price he was willing to pay.
Exhausted from flight and showing signs of extreme fatigue, Mike laid down on the mountain top in the center of the Island. He was breathing hard, this was the hardest he had ever worked in his entire life. No measure of combat training in the past had prepared him for what he had just done.
'Death from Above.' A motto he had learned in the Military, it stuck with him.
When the first sun began to crest the horizon, Mike looked at the smoke trails that led into the sky from the Island. The whole place looked like a volcano had begun to erupt and there was ash everywhere. The Liquefied Elemental Fire Essence was burned up or had fused with its surroundings, there was no hope for the civilization that once lived on the island to be the same within a measured amount of time.
Mike had obliterated all hope for their future.
The Island was quiet, besides the crackling of fire, there was no noise in the vicinity. Even the bugs had died. Mike began to quickly seize all the rubble and property in the Castle, he made his way down into the depths of the ruined building. On the third floor down, he counted 10 rooms, filled with treasures.
He cleared them all, leaving nothing but dust.
As he descended into the darkness and down to the fourth floor he dropped many glow stones to mark his path. The deeper he went, the louder his footsteps sounded and the more they echoed.
"Who's there?" A few voices that trembled in the darkness kept asking who had arrived, Mike ignored them for a minute and looked at the writings on the wall. 'Sir Frakes.' was written on one of the doors.
"Who is Sir Frakes?" Mike asked, it was the first time a living being had heard his voice on the island. He remained prepared to kill the man and opened the door. It screeched along the hinges as it opened and the man stumbled forward a foot or so before the chains that held him against the wall began to retract, pinning his back against the stone once more.
The man's voice trembled, "I was Ornia's Greatest General, once." The man was pitiful, it looked like he had been repeatedly raped by his guards. There was blood and feces all over the floor, he was wearing a dress with the ass cut out.
'These people. This is fu▓ked up, what sort of shit is this?' He could smell the foulness that lingered, the scent of human excrement. In Mike's home town there was a saying that all his friends agreed upon, 'Rapists deserve to die in a pool of their own blood.' Mike's fist tightened, he was now thankful he had burned them all alive. "So, you've been down here for how long?" Mike sent roots into the wall, separating the chains from it.
"Thank you! I've been here for almost eight years. Our previous King, he was taken prisoner just like I was but no one knew. The Prince said that he had gone on a long journey, one that he never came back from. Once, I came down here to check on a prisoner that I need to question. He heard my voice and called to me." Frakes didn't have to keep telling the story for Mike to understand everything that had happened.
"Say no more. Change out of that prisoners uniform, here are some clothes. I've burned the entire Island, there are no survivors, only you few." Mike spoke but then Sir Frakes fell to the floor.
"None?" he gripped at the dust and cried.
"None. I will never show mercy to my enemies, no matter the age." Mike turned away, "Pity is different than Mercy. I pitied you, so I released you. Those people, they all knew how their kingdom conducted themselves and yet refused to rise up and fight against it. In my homeland there is an old saying, any system of government that proves to be corrupt should be abolished."
"Pretty words don't bring back the dead." Sir Frakes was still weeping over the dead.
"Neither will your crying. I've given you freedom, figure out your life from here. There are plenty of empty boats by the shore. I'm off to destroy the Armies on the mainland, if you survive this and we meet again, I will introduce myself properly." Mike led him to the surface, leaving the other prisoners in their cells.
He spread his wings and dove off the crumbled wall, catching the wind as he flew away.
With more than a few hours to cross the channel once more, Mike was forced to fly in the open. News of the Islands destruction would only remain hidden until someone found it. If he wanted to have an impact from his actions, he would have to work fast and catch them off guard. Long involved fights could get others drawn into it and collateral damage was not ideal. The Poocha people were not the ones being aggressive and murdering as they traveled the continents.
As Mike was flying back to the mainland, he took the time to go through his loot. The treasure rooms of Ornia's castle were stocked with all sorts of magical devices and stored medicines or herbs. They had a habit of storing and stockpiling the medicines in an effort to keep the prices high. With Mike's haul, ten Kingdoms could support their army for at least a decade.
Reaching the Shoreline, there were Ornian Ships anchored a few miles away. Mike made himself slow down and he dropped into the water. Mike didn't need to breathe, he could survive the Vacuum of space, according to the Titans. Testing it out himself, he was quite pleased with the circumstances.
Sneaking to the boats from underneath the sea, he passed many wrecked ships on the Ocean's bottom. They carried varying crests, their sails tattered and flowing with the currents. He collected a few along his route but left the majority, there were other concerns far more important.
The Ornian Forces and Commanders above the surface had no idea what was about to happen.